Emerald League
by PURRcrastination
Summary: Sakura's just a girl with a big dream. But with her talent for catching Pokemon, and some loyal friends -both human AND Pokemon- by her side, that dream just might come true. Join her as she fights to be the very best and win the Pokemon League.
1. Episode 1 - I choose you!

Ding!!

Sakura shot up in bed, covers pooling to around her waist as she blearily rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Casting a glance at her alarm clock, she sighed.

5:30 AM.

Why had she woken up so early again? Hitting the alarm clock with the side of her fist and watching with a sort of gleeful satisfaction as it crumpled, Sakura got ready to go back to sleep.

Snuggling back under her warm duvet covers, she closed her eyes and was just about ready to go back to sleep when her stupid mind -she was just about ready to kill herself for disrupting her sleep- reminded her of something.

Today was the day she got to choose a starter Pokemon!

Jolting back upright once again, this time Sakura was wide awake. It was finally here! The day she would begin her own Pokemon adventures had arrived!

Quickly jumping out of her warm, cozy, bed, Sakura almost tripped over her feet as she ran to her closet to retrieve her clothes for the day. Almost giddily, she reached into it and pulled out the clothes she had prepared almost a week beforehand.

Grabbing the fabrics with one hand she reached for a towel with the other and rushed into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her.

Finishing her shower in record time -Sakura was one of those kids who never wanted to get out of the shower once they were in it- she quickly pulled on the emerald green crop top with mesh underneath she had chosen, and a pink miniskirt with small black spandex shorts underneath as well as knee high black leather boots.

Pulling her cherry pink hair into a high ponytail and using a head band to push it away from her face, Sakura flashed herself the peace sign in her floor length mirror before running out of the bathroom and almost breaking her leg on the stairs in her haste to run downstairs.

In a few seconds Sakura had crossed the living room and had grabbed her already prepared bag from beside the door to the house.

"Bye mom!" She shouted to her mother who was in the kitchen preparing breakfast for her little brother.

"Have fun and remember to be safe and careful!" Her mom yelled back, popping a few pieces of bread in the toaster and waving to Sakura.

She smiled and opened the door, taking a long breath of air with her eyes closed before opening her sea green orbs again and sprinting to the the Professor's office, forgetting to close the door in her haste.

Behind her, still in the house, her mom laughed and made her way to the door to close it behind her daughter, silently wishing her the best of luck in her journey.

A few minutes later, Sakura burst through the doors of the Professor's home, nearly tearing it off its hinges because she hadn't been able to stop sprinting.

Wide eyed, Sakura looked around frantically before finding a table where she assumed the starting Pokemon were.

Then she looked closer and realized there was only one pokeball left on the table instead of the three she'd expected. She frowned in disappointment, she had hoped that waking up so early meant that she would get first choice but apparently two other Pokemon trainers had already chosen their Pokemon. Sakura sighed, well, better one than nothing.

At that exact moment, the Professor entered through his doorway, noticing her and smiling a kind smile.

"Well as I'm sure you've already noticed there is only one pokeball left sadly, but go on and have a look!" He urged, waving her towards the last pokeball as he dug around in a messily organized supply box for a pokedex.

As Sakura slowly approached the table, the Professor finally found what he was looking for and handed her a plain white pokedex, which she took with a grateful thanks and tucked into the pocket of her skirt. Then Sakura reached out with her right hand and grasped the cool material of the pokeball, closing her eyes in anticipation.

As she slowly pressed the release button, she opened her eyes and saw a light forming on the floor of the office. She saw a reddish orange creature who had a flame on its tail appear when the light faded.

"Char! Charmander!" It squeaked, excitedly. Sakura ran forward to scoop up the Charmander and jumped for joy.

"I'm so happy! You're exactly what I wanted!" She said, holding the Charmander at eye level so that they could look into each other's eyes. Slowly, Sakura placed him down on the floor before pointing a single slender finger at him.

"I choose you, Charmander!"


	2. Episode 2 - Konoha City Gym Battle

As Sakura headed towards the gates of her small town, she couldn't help but open up her new pokeball once more, allowing her Charmander to sit on her head as they walked.

Reaching into the pocket of her skirt, Sakura pulled out her pokedex, eager to learn more about her first and newest Pokemon. Angling the pokedex towards her head so that the camera could pick up Charmander, Sakura read the entry:

 **Charmander, the Lizard Pokémon. Charmander's health can be gauged by the fire on the tip of its tail, which burns intensely when it's in good health. It is said that a Charmander dies if it's flame ever goes out.**

Sakura laughed, "I guess I'll have to remember to bring an umbrella when we go out in the rain, huh" she said to the Pokemon sitting peacefully on her head.

"Char! Char!" He agreed, moving so that he lay using his belly on top of Sakura's head. She smiled and moved a hand to the top of it's head to pet it.

"Where do you want to go once we leave the village?" She questioned, more to herself then to her Pokemon. Charmander seemed to think about it for a second before responding with a "Charmander?" Sakura laughed, looking at the pokemap on her pokedex.

"Hmm" she said, examining the map. "There's a gym in Konoha City which is were we are, and another one in the nearby Suna City... I guess we could try the Konoha one but I hear the gym leaders really strong and that no one with under three badges has ever defeated him!"

All of a sudden, Charmander jumped down in front of Sakura with a fist pumped in the air. "Char! Char! Charmander!" He demanded, scuttling off on his short legs towards where it thought the gym was.

Sakura laughed brightly, "The gym is this way, Charmander!" She said, picking him up from under his arms to place him back on her head.

Charmander smiled, happy that his trainer had complied to his wishes, and they headed to the gym together, both determined to win their first badge

As they reached the gym, Sakura was surprised to see that there weren't many people, only two other challengers as far as she could see.

Then she realized that it made sense, considering most of her graduating class had received their starter Pokemon more than a week ago. Actually, she was pretty sure only she and two others had received their starter Pokemon today, so considering that, the two other challengers here must have been the other new trainers who got there before her this morning.

Smiling she walked up to the nearest challenger who was leaning against a wall of the gym looking bored.

"Hi!" She said brightly, smiling at the blonde boy with cerulean blue eyes. "My name's Sakura Haruno, do you know where the gym leader is? I really wanted to try and get a gym badge."

The blonde boy smiled back at her before introducing himself as Naruto Uzumaki and plopping down to a sitting position against the wall.

"Ya, I came for a match too, but the gym leader was supposed to show up about an hour ago and he still hasn't come!" He complained, taking a pokeball out of his pocket and throwing it up in the air before catching it again.

"I'm really glad you here though, he said slyly, grinning. "It was getting really annoying with only that TEME for company" he finished, jabbing a finger in the direction of a dark haired boy who was the other challenger.

The boy huffed, crossing his arms over his chest and muttering "Dobe. My name is Sasuke Uchiha not teme".

Sakura laughed, "You guys also got your starting Pokemon today, right? I have Charmander as you can see, which ones did you guys choose?" She asked, gesturing at Charmander who was still lying lazily on her head.

Naruto grinned and clicked the button on his pokeball, releasing light which came together on the gym floor to reveal a green creature with some sort of plant thing on it'a back. "Bulbasaurrrr" it growled, looking at the Charmander on Sakura's head.

Sasuke's lips twitches slightly too as he pulled out his own pokeball and clicked the open button. A blue Pokemon with a shell on its back appeared, jumping up and down as soon as it came out.

"Squirt! Squirt! Squirtle! Squirt!" It yelled, bouncing over to Bulbasaur and Charmander who had just jumped down from Sakura's head. Sakura raised an eyebrow, glancing from Sasuke to his squirtle and back again.

"Well..." she began slowly, "...they do say opposites attract right?" She said, chuckling slightly at the sight of Squirtle going around trying to receive fist bumps from all the other Pokemon. Sasuke turned his face away, a bit of pink touching the top of his ears.

"I didn't know what it's personality would be when I chose it" he said grumpily, trying to ignore the Squirtle which was now hanging onto his leg. Naruto laughed and opened his mouth, about to say something when all of a sudden a large poof of smoke filled the gym.

All three trainers abruptly turned their heads in that direction and were surprised when a man with spiky silver hair, a face mask covering his nose and mouth, and a bandana over his right eye appeared.

"Yo" he greeted, raising a single hand lazily as he studied them. "Are you guys the new trainers here to challenge me to a match?" he asked. They all nodded, stunned by the appearance of the gym leader.

The man crinkled his eye in a smile "Okay then, my name is Kakashi Hatake and I am the gym leader of Konoha City Gym" he greeted, lowering his still raised hand as he gestured for them to step forwards into the centre of the gym.

"We do things a little differently here at this gym, so let me explain the rules" he drawled. "First of all, here you fight together in teams of three against me if you're a new trainer, which is good considering there are three of you here. Also, I will change the amount of Pokemon groups have to fight depending on how strong you are as a team. Finally, while there are three people on a team, there are only two badges available, so the person I think performs the worst will not receive a badge... that is of course, if you even manage to defeat my Pokemon" Kakashi explained, examining each one of them with a piercing black eye.

Naruto was still trying to sort all the information in his brain when Kakashi decided. "You will fight one Pokemon together, you must be some of the suckiest trainers I've ever seen" he declared calmly, acting as if they weren't even worth the time.

Naruto growled and Sakura had to physically restrain him from jumping at Kakashi. "Not now" she whispered frantically in his ear. "We have to come up with a plan to defeat him" she quietly said to both Sasuke and Naruto.

Sasuke scoffed and looked at her. "You heard what Hatake said. Only two people will get a badge even if we work together so how do I know you won't betray me if we win" he said coldly.

Sakura almost facepalmed. "You're so idiotic!" She whispered, her voice getting a bit louder as she stabbed Sasuke in the chest. "Why are you so overconfident! Thinking you can beat a gym leader with a starter Pokemon you just received hours ago" she hissed, looking him in the eyes. Next to her, Charmander huffed out an agreement before walking in front of her, ready to start the match.

Sasuke pointedly turned his face away before spitting out "fine".

Sakura suddenly did a complete 180 and smiled, turning to Naruto to see if he agreed as well.

The blonde nodded eagerly, motioning for his Bulbasaud to stand next to her Charmander.

Grumpily, Sasuke pointed for his Squirtle to stand next to the two other Pokemon.

All three narrowed their eyes slightly and tensed, moving into battle positions as Kakashi smiled and pulled out his own pokeball, opening it to reveal a Chespin who smiled cheekily and moved to face its three opponents.

Kakashi tilted his head, still looking bored before announcing the match.

"The gym battle between Gym Leader Kakashi Hatake and challengers Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, and Naruto Uzumaki will now begin!" He declared with a wave of his hand.

All of the challengers smiled slightly -well not so slightly on Naruto's part- as they clenched their fists and strategized.

"It's a grass type so Charmander will have an advantage over it being a fire type" Sakura said, pulling out her pokedex to get a better reading on it, "Sasuke, be careful not to let your Squirtle get hit" she also warned as she aimed the camera of her white pokedex towards Chespin.

 **Chespin, the Spiny Nut Pokémon. Chespin can flex the soft spikes on its head, making them so stiff and sharp that it can even pierce through stone.**

Sakura put her pokedex back in her pocket and smiled at her teammates.

"Let's do this!"


	3. Episode 3 - A bitter victory

Sakura stared, blinking at the two shiny badges she held in her right hand.

She looked up at the silver haired gyn leader leaning over her with a friendly eye crinkle.

"W-we did it?"

But they hadn't won... had they? The gym leader's single Pokemon had knocked all of their Pokemon unconscious in under 10 minutes. Sasuke's squirtle had almost been kicked out of the fight first. The black haired boy had given his Pokemon the order to attack with a move that it hadn't even learned yet, and the blue creature had only been narrowly saved by a stupid move from Naruto, who had told his bulbasaur to make a direct attack, and by accident gotten it into the path of the attack from Chespin meant for Sasuke. After that, Naruto had rushed to his unconscious bulbasaur and been out of the fight. Sakura had tried to help Sasuke because of his Pokemon's type weakness, yet he had bluntly refused her aid, choosing to keep attack Kakashi's chespin with only his squirtle. And then when Sasuke's Pokemon had been knocked out with an effortless pin missile from the chespin, Sakura and her Charmander had been the only ones left. Sasuke had scowled, making no move to help his unconscious Pokemon, and had instead, arrogantly, idiotically, cruelly, commanded her to let him use her Charmander to continue his fight. Sakura's answer had been no, of course, but it still brought that mind-numbing rage whenever she fought about it. _Charmander is mine. _

So how did we win? Charmander is unconscious. I tried my best, but I already knew before I came here that I wouldn't be able to match up to Kakashi.

The gym leader, in question, continued giving that irritatingly fake, eye crinkle.

"Well, let's just say that I was impressed with your teamwork"

Sakura narrowed her emerald eyes.

 _What teamwork? Is he joking?_

Kakashi chuckled.

"Oh wait, sorry. My mistake, I meant to say; I was impressed with your efforts of teamwork." The silver haired gym leader pointed directly at Sakura.

Turning to the two boys, he stopped smiling.

"Among the three of you, she was the only one who immediately realized that she had absolutely no chance of winning that battle alone."

All of sudden, turning another 180 degrees, he started smiling again, patting Sakura on the head.

"Which is why, I've decided to give _you_ the two badges. You may do whatever you wish with. Perhaps keep one and choose who to give the second to?" Kakashi said.

Sakura blinked, finally comprehending what had happened as both boys turned towards her with hopeful looks, thinking that she would be nice enough -stupid enough- to give the second badge to one of them.

"I want to keep both of them" she proclaimed coldly. I'm her arms, Charmander finally began to stir, coming back to consciousness.

"I hope you realize how purely idiotic both of you were."

Sakura watched as both of the boy's eyes widened in surprise. Ha, had they really believed that she was some pushover? Sasuke tried to make a remark but she cut him off.

"You didn't even think about your Pokemon! Are they nothing more than a tool to you?"

Naruto bowed his head in shame. Good, at least _he_ got it. Sasuke though, scowled, an ugly expression that made his face seem darker.

"Squirtle isn't a tool, but he also isn't human, and I won't treat him as such," he turned to his Pokemon, who had just woken up. "Squirtle, you understand that I need you to help me win gym battles, don't you?"

Squirtle nodded slowly, standing up wearily as if getting ready for another battle.

Sasuke patted his blue Pokemon on the head and held out a hand to Sakura. Changing his tone of voice, he spoke with a more polite demeanour.

"Please reconsider your decision, Sakura. I'm sure you didn't know how important getting that gym badge is to me when you made it."

Sakura raised an eyebrow, telling him to continue.

"I need to get all the badges so that I can enter the Pokemon league and defeat my elder brother" Sasuke explained.

Sakura scoffed.

"That's not important. Anyways, I've made my decision and I'm leaving now, I'm sure you guys can go to some other gyms and get badges there."

Naruto seemed to want to say something as he held an arm out towards her but was stopped by Kakashi putting his hand on the blond's head.

"Bye then, maybe I'll see you again at some point" Sakura said politely, bowing her head slightly, before turning on her heels and leaving the gym, Charmander still safe and secure in her arms.


End file.
